SoCal Minds

Prime time for fans of Twain, football, Roy Rogers

From ALOUD, CalArts & the Autry

Let's do a quick dash through some literary, artistic and collectibles matters of note around the area: For those who can't get enough dish about one of America's greatest homespun writing master, Laura Skandera Trombley, president of Pitzer and one of the preeminent scholars on the topic, will take on the dark, troubled last years of Mark Twain in a free talk downtown at 7 tonight; space is limited and reservations are required. For those Lakers, Dodgers, Trojans or other sports nuts who want another artistic view of the athletic world, the folks in Valencia provide an excellent shout-out for prominent alum Catherine Opie and her now open LACMA exhibit on high school football (as exemplified by 'Josh, 2007,' shown at right, from the Eugene Sadovoy Collection). And lastly, while lots of attention got paid to the fate of the taxidermied specimen of horse-flesh known as Trigger, the folks over in Griffith Park ay they just couldn't pass up nabbing stuff at a recent auction of Roy Rogers memorabilia and they're posting about it and the legendary cowboy on their blog.  

Has biology become hot science for 'outlaws,' artists?

From UCLA & Cal Arts

OK, so let's admit it: Physics classes demanded too much math and chemistry got a little too complicated with its formulas and theoretical combinations. So good ol' bio, even with the sometimes gross dissections of various beasties, became the science of choice for many of us arts and letters types, who haven't looked back at much of it since, sigh. Here's two reasons to re-examine biology, which, clearly, isn't the 'easy' science of back in the day....

• The Bruins offer an intriguing examination of a nascent movement in the science, a move from sparkling, high-tech, scholarly and controlled ivy-tower labs to, um, grungy garages. In the same way that geeky teens like Bill Gates and Steve Jobs seized upon the then-developing field of computer science -- and voila, look how that changed the world -- experts are looking more closely at 'DIYbio' or 'Outlaw biology.' Sure, safety and risk underlie some concerns, particularly in the post 9/11 world. But some see potential advances in science and health when more members of the public, for example, undertake genetic study in their homes of rare diseases that afflict just a few. 

Will 'DIY' or 'Outlaw' biology revolutionize a science, society?

• Meantime, for those in non-scientific worlds, the folks in Valencia have decided to offer an interdisciplinary cluster of courses that examine biology and its intersection and interplay with art. Experts already have seen how creatives have built a teahouse out of fungus, recorded trumpeters in the echoing expanses of the Grand Canyon or even breeding plants into their work, or in controversial fashion, commissioning a lab to engineer a rabbit with the green fluorescent protein gene of a jellyfish. The courses will tackle safety in dealing with technology as well as aesthetic, philosophic, critical and practical considerations of science and art.

A creative consideration of intersection, interplay of art, biology

For the 4th, exhibits, concerts, reading lists, feasting

From CalArts, Zocalo, UCI, the Getty, UCLA & Cal State Fullerton

Hope a safe, sane and fun Fourth weekend's on tap for one and all. With a legal holiday for many, the three-day weekend will allow for lots of intellectual exploring, feasting, reading and taking in stuff around the town. If anyone is left out there reading this, for example:

• The folks from Valencia, even with their ultra-cool downtown L.A. toe-hold at REDCAT, will be invading the city with L.A. Record 100, an array of concerts and events -- including many throughout the holiday weekend to benefit the community arts partnership program, as well as with 'Box Scheme,' the 2010 MFA graduates' exhibit that will take over space in multiple galleries in the old Chinatown.

• If graphics and fabrics grab certain artistic fancies for some people, they may be making their way to Fullerton for 'Love Me, Tees Me,' a summer showcase of T-shirt art, including some silk-screening demos today (7-3).

• Since the 4th marks the true start of Southern California summer, when, perhaps, the gloom lifts most everywhere, including on the Westside and the coast, well, it must be time to get out those beach reading lists, including one from the downtown literary and public affairs crowd or maybe try this batch from some literary minded folks in Irvine.

• Of course, what's a long holiday without lots of eating. Consider feasting as the Aztecs once did, or maybe while fretting about the cruelty of the eats or perhaps there will be moments to consider that meal's olfactory significance, as occurs if someone simply mentions the word 'curry.'

• And hate to be a serious-minded, gloomy gus. But this is supposed to be a time to consider freedom, independence, democracy and the kind of government we the people accept. As in, don't think there's any escape from the state budget crisis. The partisan, paralyzing divide in Sacramento and across the Golden State has left us all in societal penury. Meaning? Well, among other effects will be a two-week, cost-saving shutdown of a Westside public museum.

Battle Bears: a big i-Hit with paw tracks back to Valencia

 From CalArts

They're kinda adorable, hugable and disarming, what with their pastel colors and warm and fuzzy lines. But for gamers captivated by the capacities of the array of Apple i-Technology (iPhones, iPads, iTunes) and the company's apps, well, those cute little bears represent something else: a booming franchise. That's because their sweet appearance aside, these are Battle Bears and they are part of what now are three, raucous, shoot 'em up, downloadable games. They are a pastime that preoccupies Apple fanatics sufficiently that various elements of the Battle Bears have exceeded 2 million Apple downloads and have put an experimental animation alum from Valencia in the gaming fast track. He's Benjamin Vu, (shown at right and above) who with his brother, Hua, has formed SkyVu Pictures, with operations in, wait, wait, Omaha, Singapore and Vietnam. Brother Ben credits his Southern California time with letting him work with Henry Selick on 'Moongirl,' as well as the Oscar-winning 'Coraline,' plus, he says, he wrote 'Battle Bears,' a sci-fi adventure that is now in development. 

Hit game on Apple technology traces a track through time in experimental animation study

Click here for more information on 'Battle Bears'

A fast week ahead for fans of writing, music, dance

From ALOUD, UCLA, CalArts & the Huntington

Think Richard Russo (Empire Falls, Nobody's Fool) on writing. Or Mischa and Merce on dance. Or how about Richard Wagner once and a second time or Huang Ruo on music? Best part of three-day weekends is how they accelerate the work week. So get to the seeing and planning, as Russo's appearance downtown and the first of two Westwide, Ring-related Wagner programs will be this afternoon and tonight. Tickets for a Baryshnikov benefit performance downtown Monday for the Merce Cunningham foundation and REDCAT are going fast. And with a balmy weekend already in the forecast ahead, might be a perfect reason to get to San Marino to see Huang Ruo, an up and coming composer who blends classical, contemporary, Eastern and Western musical traditions.  

Photos: Cunningham, Baryshnikov, l, in 1999 /Robert Whitman; Huang Ruo, r

Stinks in Bucharest, San Marino; a whiff of Little Tokyo fun

From CalArts, the Japanese American National Museum & the Huntington

It's supposed to be a balmy, sunny holiday weekend in Southern California and if the weather alone doesn't provide the pleasure of living in this spot on the planet, well, you could be in Bucharest...

That's where an artist-scholar who splits her time between LA and Vienna discovered that a few influential Bulgarians may be a tad behind modern thinking, as they banned her work at the Bucharest Bienale. Maybe that could become its own bizarre badge of honor?  And, no, as can be seen from the image at left, Kaucyila Brooke's art, though provocatively titled, wouldn't raise the fussiest of eyebrows in Los Angeles where saucier views assault the senses on any street at any moment. Hah! 

As long as we're on the topics of making a stink, the folks in San Marino are stirring the pot yet again as the son of the son of ol' smelly, they say, soon will bloom. Say what? Though it's a little inexplicable the popularity of the supposedly rare phenomenon, yet another amorphophallus titanum, aka corpse flowers, is shooting up and ready to make its odiferous opening in the next bit. For those smitten by this botantical bounty, well, there's an online spot to follow the stinky plant and its flowering, blow by blow. Phew.

So we leave you with a more pleasant thought and smelling like a rose, the folks over in Little Tokyo will be celebrating their Asian Pacific Islander and Native American Heritage Festival starting at 11 on Saturday. There will be movies, lectures, exhibits and the museum says it will admit one and all on a 'pay what you can' basis. Donate lots, eh?

Time for online offspring of 'Black Clock' lit journal

From CalArts

It's a self-described singular, idiosyncratic and a 'little mysterious' journal that has published the likes of literary lights Don DeLillo, Richard Powers, Joanna Scott, Jonathan Lethem, Rick Moody, Lynne Tillman, Samuel R. Delany, Joseph McElroy, Aimee Bender, Brian Evenson, Geoff Nicholson, Shelley Jackson, Carlos Ruiz Zafon, David Foster Wallace and William T. Vollmann. And now for readers of 'Black Clock,' the distinguished publication from those folks in Valencia, well, there's a new dose of writing: a companion literary blog, which feted itself over the weekend. What's there? How about a 'found' Internet poem, a look at 'Twitterature' and an imaginary interview with Herman Melville. Hmmm.

In Valencia, a writerly blog celebrates its debut with weekend fete

Click here for 'Black Clock' blog

A weekend homage to Nobelist Ocatvio Paz

From CSULA, CalArts & the Getty

In East LA, scholars from globe will descend on campus starting today for a major conference focused on the poetry, prose and politics of Mexican literary titan Octavio Paz, who just two decades ago was awarded the Nobel Prize. With speakers scheduled from Japan, Canada and Mexico and from multiple California institutions of higher education, organizers of the two-day Paz fest say they hope to put the diplomat and seminal thinker about Mexico and Mexican culture into a wider, deeper international and intellectual context. For those who want a performance-based peek at the power of Paz's poetry, the folks from Valencia will be popping over to a special space in Malibu to put on Mexican director Maria Morett's multimedia staging, inspired by his piece 'Piedra de Sol.' The poem, considered to be on his finest, is circular and is based on the circular calendar of the Aztecs, whose 'pantheon' is part of a major exhibit up on the hill in Brentwood, commemorating the 2010 bicentennial of Mexican independence.

In East LA, putting Paz's poetry, politics, diplomacy in a deeper, global context

In Malibu, CalArts performers in multimedia staging of Paz's 'Piedra de Sol'

Click here for full details of Paz conference

Click here for full info on Aztec 'pantheon' exhibit

SoCal scholars garner high honors in science, arts

From UCLA, UCI, UCR, USC, CalArts & UCSB

For scholars across Southern California, more honors in the sciences and the arts, as they are selected for membership in the prestigious National Academy of Sciences and win noteworthy Guggenheim fellowships. West Coast researchers, particularly those in the UC system, fared especially well in this year's elections of 72 new members of the honorary sciences organization, which has counted as peers such eminences as Albert Einstein, Robert Oppenheimer, Thomas Edison, Orville Wright and Alexander Graham Bell. There were 180 Guggenheims awarded this year, chosen from 3,000 applicants and representing 59 disciplines and 65 different academic institutions. By the way, though there aren't links to institutional posts about them, there's a CalArts Guggenheim and a Trojan science academy selection this year, an eyeballing of the respective lists shows.

In Westwood, three Bruins elected to sciences academy

In Irvine, it's a trifecta for a top scientific organization

Plant cell biologist a pick from Riverside for science academy

In Santa Barbara, two chosen for elite science group

Two Guggenheims in Riverside

A Guggenheim for an engineer in Santa Barbara

Click here for full list of newly elected science academy members

Click here for list of 2010 Guggenheim recipients

There's no whiling away this wet weekend

From Claremont McKenna College, the Keck Graduate Institute, UCLA, CSULB, CalArts, the Huntington

Yup, lots more goes on in Southern California than just the capacity to make a right turn on red (see old Woody Allen jibe).

Just a reminder of the variety of intellectual activity occurring in the area: While some scholars from across the country today and Saturday will be considering the influence of Christianity in Modern East Asia, others will be assessing what science knows about 'dark matter' in the universe and how it gets detected, while still others will be learning how to persuade the FDA they have a drug to deal with a rare disease.

And, of course, those who fancy Japanese gardens and kimono could always sneak away for a program combining the two topics or they could join in for either a Bonsai-a-thon or a recounting of a noted, century-old Japanese-inspired garden. Or maybe on a rainy weekend with the kids getting a little crazy and making their parents that way, too, it will be time to slip downtown for an international children's film festival at Redcat? Or quick, this will be the last chance to catch that play that captures the quirky life of a pioneering rocket scientist with a dark, eccentric personal life, um, maybe what could be called a Pasadena Babalon?